Better Than Brillant Harmonies
by Mrs.Mchale1994
Summary: Artie never would've thought that having a conversation with a beyond stressed and freaked out Rachel Berry would be a good experience, sometimes you just get surprises.


_**A/N: This is a quick one shot and takes place at the beginning of season 3. I have for some reason always been drawn to this friendship pairing, probably because it is so uncommon, and I finally thought of a story to write for them! Yay! Please read and review. **_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Glee belongs to it's creators and FOX. **_

It was senior year. Senior freaking' year and everything was changing. For as long as she could remember all Rachel had ever wanted was for this year to come. To finally have that final year of Lima left and then to go off to New York and start living her life. Start living her dreams. She thought she should be more excited, more happy. But she wasn't. Here she was at school on the first day of senior year, and that wasn't how she felt. She felt scared and overwhelmed. Although parts of high school had been hell, a lot of it hadn't. She had Finn and glee club, and soon all of that would be coming to an end. And yet at the same time, they still had stresses for right now to come along with it. As school was letting out that day she found herself standing by outside of the doors completely still, letting everyone pass her by. As she thought about it the nerves kept building and building and soon they turned into nausea. Next thing she knew she found herself darting to the nearest trashcan that was right in between a bench and the parking lot. She got down on the ground in order to reach the small can on the ground, she at least preferred in this already extremely awful moment for the contents of her stomach to land there, and not on the ground.

Within a minute of pure suckidge, it got a little bit better. Not because she stopped puking but because she felt a pair of hands pull back her hair back. They felt too big to be girl hands, so she thought that maybe they were Finn's. Than she realized they weren't quite that big and that he was at football practice. Kurt's maybe? That was ruled out as soon the back of her neck felt a touch of a slightly callused finger. Like guitar players. Puck? Also at practice with Finn. By the time she got that far in her guessing, she had luckily stopped throwing up. She took some deep breaths before finally hearing the voice to the hands.

"You okay?" it asked gently and she recognized the voice immediately. She sat up slightly to only see that she was right, and saw Artie sitting their right next to her in his chair.

"Yeah, um I think so. Thanks, you know for holding my hair. I'm honestly surprised you did it, I thought I was irritating." she brought up. She remembers the day he told her that sophomore year, and she honestly still thought he felt that way. It wasn't like they had ever been friends. They spoke and acted friendly occasionally, but that was really it.

Artie let out a little smile and a light laugh. "Yes, a decent amount of the time that's true; but not always. Plus, we're teammates and teammates don't let teammates get puke in their hair." he laughed, as he felt confident enough that she wouldn't throw up again to take her hair out of his hands, as he did he let his hand gently feel the back of her neck.

"I don't think you have a fever," he continued. Suddenly she saw his eyes get wide. "Shit, there isn't a chance you're pregnant are you? Cause seriously Rachel, glee club started with a girl getting knocked up, I really don't think we need to end that way either."

Rachel chuckled dryly and rolled her eyes, reaching her hand up to slightly slap his arm.

"No Artie, zero chance. Trust me."

Artie lifted his arms up in defense, "Hey just making sure, besides just trying to get to the bottom of your total Linda Blair impersonation a few minutes ago. So I'm assuming considering we're in board daylight I can rule out anything involving bulimia?"

Rachel gave his arm another slap.

"I'm just, stressed that's all." she let out.

"About what?" he asked curiously and honestly a little concerned. Rachel was right, he did think she was irritating at times. But he did in a way consider them friends. They were both outcasts. Original glee losers from the very beginning. So if she was so stressed to the point where she was vomiting, he kind of, for her sake, wanted to know why.

Rachel sighed. "For the longest time, I was so excited about getting out of here. Going to New York, chasing my dreams, and I'm still excited about that, I am, but it just kind of hit me that everything is going to change. Also this is senior year and it just seems like the pressure is on. If I don't do certain things now, I'll never have the chance again. And not just with glee club but with Finn too, our relationship might not be the same after graduation and what regret will I have to look back on if we don't actually-" She started but cut herself off as soon as she realized what kind of conversation she was going into and her cheeks immediately flushed.

"You can tell me. I, I won't get weirded out, I promise." he told her.

"I don't know, I mean I don't think you'd understand. I mean no offense, but you are the guy who lost his virginity to Brittany twenty four hours after your first real conversation with her."

"It was more like forty eight, thank you." he retorted back. "But no I get it, I do. Sex is a big deal to you, and despite the way I started out with it, it's a big deal to me too."

"Really?" she questioned.

"Really. The only reason I think I had sex with Brittany as fast as I did was I couldn't say no when the insane amount of testosterone that was going through my veins at that time kept saying yes."

Rachel let out a little laugh before putting on a serious face again. "So you regret it?"

Artie thought for a second. "I don't know," he let out honestly. "The timing, yeah. With Brittany, I don't think so. I mean I don't know what the rest of my high school love life has in store for me. It's been pretty crazy so far, but Brittany was a good girlfriend. And over time I really cared about her and so as far as the person I lost it to, that I don't think I regret. Don't rush having sex with Finn because you feel like you have too. If you do it this year, great, but do it because you want to, and because you're ready. Definitely don't get so stressed out about it that it makes you sick. That's not what it's supposed to be."

She slightly nodded. "Thanks." she told him.

He nodded and gave her a little smile and they stayed silent for a few seconds until she broke it once more.

"I really didn't think it'd be this scary. Any of this. Not just sex but leaving here. I've been ready my whole life and it's finally so close and yet, it's terrifying. I think it's just because, I don't want to leave glee."

"We are in a way, like a dysfunctional family. We fight, and we get on each others nerves, and date each other, but at the end of all of it we do love each other. It's scary to leave your family." He told her and Rachel felt the tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Are you scared too?" she asked out softly, her voice getting thick.

That question hit Artie like a ton of bricks. In that moment he realized something, he actually had more in common with Rachel Berry than he thought. They both had overall what should've been shitty high school experiences, but really, they got so much more out of it than that. And that was all because of music.

"Yeah, I am. But we still have this year and we'll make the most of it. Let's just deal with graduation as it comes."

"I can try to do that." she smiled.

He smiled back. "So um, you sure you okay? Feeling better?"

"Yeah, yeah much thanks." she told him as he held out his hand and helped pull her to her feet.

"You want me to go find Finn and have him take you home?" he asked her.

"No, he's at football practice anyway. Wait why aren't you there? I thought you were on the team?"

"I was last year, but I didn't join it for the right reasons. And although it totally pushed the wheelchair equality movement ahead like fifteen years, it wasn't for me. Like you said, this is our last year here, and I want to stick to my roots, which is music."

"Well you do music quite well. Thanks for this Artie, not just for holding back my hair, but for all of this, really." As she started to walk away.

"No problem. You know, you actually aren't so irritating when you stop focusing on winning and perfect harmonies."

She gave him another smile and then was gone, the last thought to go through his mind being, who the hell knew that helping out Rachel could actually be enjoyable.


End file.
